Learn How to Become a Badass Freelancer With RaketChick

(SPOT.ph) Freelancing has become popular among young folks in the Metro, and it's easy to see why. You can work from home (in your pajamas), sleep in until the middle of the day (depending on your workload), and deal with multiple projects at a time (ensuring that you won't get bored). You can even earn more money than a regular employee's salary if you want to. But with the many pros come a long list of cons. Procrastination is a big hurdle, clients don't pay on time, medical benefits are zilch, and, sometimes, you're just in a rut when no projects come in. To guide freelancers everywhere, Anvil Publishing launched 7 Stages of…Good Grief! Freelancer na Ko?! and Whatda! Anong Petsa Na?!: A Freelancer’s Sanity and Survival Planner—both by Karen Ferry-Fernandez—this December.

7 Stages of…Good Grief! Freelancer na Ko?! is a companion book that guides full-time employees in becoming a really badass freelancer like RaketChick. It is divided into the seven stages that any transitioning rank-and-file employee would usually go through: Shock, Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Relapse, Acceptance, and Hope. Each chapter has illustrations by Bleps Dapo, complementing the narrative of our superhero. The book’s language is a conversational mix of Filipino and English, as if RaketChick is your best friend knocking some sense into you when you’re settling for a paycheck that's less than your worth. “But until hell freezes over, you’re not buying it. No, no, no. Sinabi nang NO!,” she says in Chapter 2: Denial.

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Whatda! Anong Petsa Na?!: A Freelancer’s Sanity and Survival Planner makes sure that you don’t fall into the deep abyss of looking at cute photos of cats and dogs when you’re supposed to be working on an article or illustration due in 24 hours. “While flexibility is indeed a gift, it can easily morph into a monster of your own creation,” the planner starts.

The first step lets you map out your must-dos and must-haves for each month of the year. The next pages draw out how you can achieve these big dreams—from laying out your priority projects (with fees for each), listing down your everyday schedule (divided into morning, afternoon, evening, and zombie mode—a freelancer’s time is flexible, after all), and tracking your per-project earnings.

As in the last chapter of 7 Stages of…Good Grief! Freelancer na Ko?!, “Pag flexible, anything is possible. It all depends on how you want to grow.” And to get there, you’d need the help of a freelancing survivor like Ferry-Fernandez.

Whatda! Anong Petsa Na?!: A Freelancer’s Sanity and Survival Planner (P395) and 7 Stages of…Good Grief! Freelancer na Ko?! are available at National Book Store, Powerbooks, and Anvil Publishing's website.